Letters are fast becoming a rarity – the kind written on paper and posted in an envelope with a stamp stuck in the corner. We have lots of other options now -email, facebook, skype – but it wasn’t that long ago when letters were it. Our earliest letters all came and went by boat. Many local mail runs were really mail rows.

One ‘run’ requiring enormous endurance and perseverance was begun by Rewiri Ahitapu who lived at Te Rawhiti. When the Cape Brett lighthouse required a regular service, he rowed the mail round from Rawhiti. This incredible man, of slight build, rowed to Oneroa (Long Beach), walked over the hill to collect the mail from the Russell Post Office, rowed back to Rawhiti, then of course the mail had to be delivered to Cape Brett. He would leave on his long row at 2 or 3a.m. to miss the sou’westerly winds, then hoist a sail for the return journey.

Another memorable mailman was Capt. Bertie Cook. Bertie was once paid £5 to row the mail from Russell to Whangaroa, then on to Mangonui, back to Whangaroa and on to Russell when the Clansman was unable to do the journey.

This sign was found on the site of an old house on the Manawaora waterfront. There was a P.O. Box and telephone at the house for public use until just after WWII.

Source: “History of Services by Sea in the Bay of Islands” compiled by Myra Larcombe.

Her first sinking was in 1921 during a Saturday afternoon race to Waiheke Island. Built in 1908 by Logan Bros, Celox was a classic mullet boat, twenty-six feet long and well known to anyone who has frequented Matauwhi Bay over the last few decades. She featured in many a Russell Boating Club race, being first owned and raced by Fuzz Ellis. Joe Cotton was the next owner, then John Grant. Celox competed in the Tall ships Race this year, sailed by her current owner. Just over a week ago on a moonlit night she struck a rock at the Cavallis and sank, for the second time. Fortunately on this occasion, no lives were lost. In 1921 the then owner and his five year old son both drowned when Celox was struck by a sudden squall within a few minutes of the race finish. With a big following sea she wouldn’t answer the helm and with the centre board up the boat broached, heeled over and sank in about half a minute, in 12 fathoms of water. On that occasion she was salvaged and restored.

Source: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AS19210314.2.53&e=——-10–1—-2%22celox+sinks+while+racing%22–

Synchronicity struck a couple of weeks ago at Russell Museum. Quite by chance two sailors arrived, within minutes of each other, with one aim in mind – to check out our Endeavour model for seaworthiness. The verdict was unanimous. Yes, it can be done. Our biggest obstacle is likely to be finding 6 tons of lead to use as ballast. The rest is easy, they assured me. So we have every chance of getting her sailing again, perhaps for a January Tall Ships Race, but definitely for the 250 year anniversary of Cook’s arrival in the Bay in 2019. The ship’s original owner, Ralph Sewell, built the one fifth scale model from a photocopy of the original deck plan and details of the Admiralty’s instructions to alter the former Whitby collier, found in J. Beaglehole’s “The Journals of Captain James Cook”. Sewell didn’t have a sail plan-just a spar list. This was no obstacle. Where there are spars there must be sails, he figured. Together with an enthusiastic crew of helpers, Sewell built the model in twelve weeks. He was reportedly “amazed to discover how easily the little model could be handled, how sweetly she could change tacks, how speedy and seaworthy she appeared for a square rigger of only 22 feet “(6.7 metres). The photo shows the model sailing in the Hauraki Gulf.

Source: New Zealand Weekly News October 6, 1969. Accession # 96/597

Geoff Hindle had a cleanup in his shed a few weeks ago. Look at what he found! Thank you Geoff, for donating this artists paint box to Russell Museum. It was made by English firm Winsor and Newton – “By appointment to Her Majesty Queen Victoria and the Prince and Princess of Wales”. Early boxes were by appointment to “Her Majesty and to his Late Royal Highness the Prince Consort”. Prince Albert died in 1861. In the box are some surviving examples of the first ‘moist’ watercolours which utilised the moisture-retaining properties of a recently discovered material, glycerine. Prior to this watercolour painters had to make paints themselves using pigments purchased from an apothecary. The earliest commercial paints were small, resinous blocks that had to be wetted and laboriously “rubbed out” in water. In the late 1880s Winsor Newton developed permanent colours. They began labelling these with “SL” for their Select List of permanent watercolour paint. One of these blocks, in its own porcelain pan, is still in this box. We have therefore tentatively dated the box and its contents to between the 1880s and 1901 (when Queen Victoria died). We think it was probably owned and used by James Yearbury, who lived at 4 Florence Ave until 2008.

Source: http://ww3.winsornewton.com/about-us/our-history/timeline/timeline/ http://www.whimsie.com/winsor%20newton%201862%20paint%20box.html

This extract is from the Northern Advocate 6 May 1915 – almost a hundred years ago.

“The whaling season, representing a period of considerable activity in the Bay of Islands…opens this month and extends to October. The opening of the season is in no way regulated by the Government, as are the game and oyster seasons, but by the fact that from May to October is the time in which whales frequent these waters to rear their young.

Activities in North Auckland centralise at Whangamumu, where a large and up-to-date plant has been established for the cutting up and boiling down of whales. As is well known, New Zealand was long world-famed as the only country to adopt the unique idea of catching whales in nets…

The black or “right” whale, from which is obtained the black whalebone so much in demand and so valuable, is almost non-existent in these waters nowadays; the whales caught being of the humpback variety, which, if large, are worth about £100 each.”

The photo shows the Whangamumu whale net being set. In 1915 70 humpbacks were caught at Whangamumu. They yielded 250 tons of oil, 70 tons of bonedust for a total value of £4350.

Sources: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NA19150506.2.5&srpos=143&e=–1915—1915–10-NA-141—-2russell-ARTICLE- ; pg 380, Tides of History by Kay Boese (1977)

This photo postcard was sent by Trooper James Henry Saunders to a friend in Russell, in January 1916. He was the son of William & Sarah (nee Mills) Saunders and brother to seven siblings. Their ancestors first came to Russell in the 1840s-50s, settling in Kororāreka, Te Wahapu and Paroa Bay. Descendants of his brother Jake still live here. Jim died 26 February 1917 in a Turkish POW camp. This was his message:

18/1/16

Dear old Cobber,

Just a line to let you know that I am still alive. I am in the same squadron as Peter…We have some rare old times together. This photo is the result of a night out in Cairo, I guess we are some honey when we get going. Well old boy I have been back from the Dards about 3 weeks. I had six months there, quite enough too. Hurrah. Remember me to all the Russell folks,

Jim

In the photo, from left to right are: Bert (better known as Peter) Williams, unknown, Jim Saunders.

Souvenir – where did the word come from? It dates from about 1765, from the French noun souvenir – to remember. Charlotte Preston Larkin designed this souvenir with a double purpose – to remember and to inspire. The  plaque is cast in plaster of paris, in relief, painted and sealed. Not only is it a representation of her handmade building, it carries a message. A sticker on the reverse says: “PUAWANANGA – In Maori, means Seed of Knowledge. This adobe cottage was built by Charlotte Preston Larkin while her sons were serving during 1939-1945 war. This souvenir she has made in the hopes that it will show the way to those seeking a home at a small cost.”

One December night in 1917, most of Russell’s populace left their homes and beds for the safety of the hills. They were hiding from the “Sea Devil”, Count Felix von Luckner, captain of the German raider SMS Seeadler (Sea Eagle). Late in the war, he was captured and imprisoned on Motuihe Island but on 13 December he escaped. Les Hirst remembered: Judge Martin decided there was only one thing that von Luckner would do and that was that he must come into Russell to fill up with benzene and fill up with stores and make his escape… But evidently von Luckner had another idea. He got in this scow and he wanted to put as much distance between Auckland and him as he could and so he hurtled off towards Cape Te Reinga way. We didn’t know that at Russell. ..this sort of home guard…paraded the streets and the launches were patrolling the harbour and then there was this strange launch seen around Kerikeri way… a home guard knocked at the door and said, “Von Luckner‟s coming, this is what you have to do.” They had it all worked out. We went up there to a little plateau behind Martin’s old house. About two in the morning I think it was. And they told us to get up the hill. From memory my mother and brothers and young Alice would have been a baby…We saw the sun rise. And no von Luckner and the Salvation Army boys…they went somewhere else. They hid in the bush I think. I think they were missing for the whole day.”  The photo shows Russell c.1916.

Russell Museum’s latest exhibition commemorates Russell’s contribution to World War One. We remember those who gave their lives on the battlefields, but also explore what the war meant to those who stayed behind. What we didn’t have room for in the gallery was the story of how Captain Bert Cook came to be awarded the Meritorious Service Medal – originally instituted for award to Warrant Officers and Senior Non-Commissioned Officers of the Army. Cook’s whaler Hananui was requisitioned by the Government as a minesweeper. In September 1918 he found this mine floating off Okahu – Redhead. Apparently it was one of twenty-five mines laid by the German raider Wolf . One of those mines caused the loss of the Wimmera, 3022 tons, off the Three Kings in June. Eighteen mines were later swept there. This one travelled quite a distance before being found. Cook and the Hananui towed it in to Matauwhi Bay. There it was anchored, under guard, and later towed to Veronica Channel and despatched by the minesweepers Simplon and Nora Niven.